Final July was the deadline for main digital platforms to adjust to the UK’s On-line Security Act (OSA). In an try to dam entry between minors and materials deemed “dangerous” by the federal government, platforms like Reddit, Spotify, and X started harder age verification for his or her customers, equivalent to facial scans or, in some instances, even needing to see authorities ID. On the prime of these stumbling to take action was Discord, whose system is just not solely simple to recreation but additionally not unimaginable to compromise, with one main safety breach exposing some 70,000 customers’ IDs shortly after. Now Discord is seeking to implement age verification globally. A agency Discord at one level labored with to take action could also be much more controversial than the choice itself.
Whereas the roll-out is aimed for March, PC Gamer reviews that some Discord customers have already been prompted for brand new age verification, this time utilizing the third-party service Persona. Began in 2018, Persona develops identification detection and anti-fraud applied sciences. They’ve been having an absolute subject day for the reason that OSA, being carried out to confirm person ID throughout Reddit and Roblox. One sticking level, nonetheless, is who’s backing the corporate: Peter Thiel, the cofounder of ICE-approved surveillance agency Palantir.
managed to catch it pic.twitter.com/Yyu0FaoDJ7
— Folf (@itsfolf) February 12, 2026
One in all Persona’s greatest traders is the Founders Fund, valuing the corporate at $1.5 billion and rallying $150 million in the direction of it in 2021. The Founders Fund started within the mid-2000s and made key early investments within the likes of SpaceX, AirBNB, OpenAI and Polymarket. All of your favourite tech issues “disrupting” the trendy world. And who would unleash such a financial energy unto civilization? Why, none aside from your pal and mine, the anti-humanist, antichrist-awaiting Thiel.
Thiel, after all, is thought for a lot of issues. A co-founder of PayPal, Thiel is now extra carefully affiliated with Palantir, an organization specializing in digital surveillance and exploiting person info. Palantir, named after the crystal balls that enable communication throughout Center-earth in The Lord of the Rings, has been round since 2003 however has stored loads busy these days. 404 uncovered how the corporate has been creating ELITE, an instrument to watch person info for the aim of conducting ICE raids. Elsewhere, the latest, huge disclosure of Epstein emails had reoccurring correspondence between the world’s most lively person info dealer and the world’s most well-known intercourse trafficker. The 2 mentioned the lawsuit to finish Gawker and easy methods to greatest balkanize the planet.
Having the Founders Fund so near expanded data-capturing throughout Discord, one of many extra personal locations to have a public dialog on-line, has made customers just a little itchy. The platform has not been solely clear about the way it goals to quickly develop its age verification course of, stating a mixture of necessary scanning but additionally utilizing current person knowledge to guesstimate if a person is of their 30s (which is nice information for everybody who communicates by way of Simpsons quotes).
In an official replace, Discord urged customers who encountered prompts from Persona are a part of “an experiment” and that the knowledge will solely be saved for seven days. How the tech will probably be utilized in the long run is but to be identified. When requested for remark, Discord instructed Kotaku its work with Persona was a part of a “restricted check” which has since been concluded.
Regardless, I’ll see you on the boards.
